Entries in Joe Louis Arena
(1)

The auto industry is headed into the abyss and doesn’t recognize it. Lost in its own echo chamber, the domestic and foreign manufacturers descended on Detroit for the latest iteration of the North American International Auto Show (Can we please officially shorten this to NAIAS Detroit?) declaring the inexorable triumph of automation, electrification and a switch from being automakers to mobility providers. The reality distortion field was turned up to 10, and breathlessly reported on by the assembled hacks as they cheered the oncoming onslaught of electric vehicles driven by artificially intelligent computers. These fawning hacks who normally worry about the number of frequent flier miles racked up as they traipse from city to city and country to country on the rolling dinner party that is the modern vehicle launch program, could not see the end of this gravy train embodied by these over-the-top concepts and ideas. Or did they willfully wish to ignore them as much as they ignore their own waning importance?

It was the same willful ignorance as shown by Ford as it breezily introduced the 2018 F-150 — the most important single vehicle in the company lineup, and the one whose profitability makes it possible for the rest of the lineup to exist — and ushered it off the stage in order to make space to talk about mobility.